The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has renewed its dispute with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the names published as the party’s candidates for 10 Anambra State House of Assembly constituencies.
The party said it did not submit the details or EC9E forms of the 10 candidates currently listed on INEC’s platform, and challenged the electoral commission to explain how their information found its way onto the portal.
The NDC Director of New Media and Strategic Communications, Agada Abuh Theophilus, made the claim in a statement issued on Wednesday.
The latest development comes days after the party accused INEC of replacing some of its candidates ahead of the 2027 elections.
The dispute centres on 10 names published by INEC as NDC candidates for various constituencies in Anambra State. The party had earlier said the individuals were not known to it and did not emerge from its nomination process.
In a statement issued on Sunday, NDC National Chairman, Senator Moses Cleopas Zuwoghe, alleged that the names were not among those submitted by the party to the commission.
INEC, however, rejected the allegation.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Chairman of its Information and Voter Education Committee (IVEC), Mohammed Kudu Haruna, described claims that the commission independently uploaded or altered candidate information as unfounded and untrue.
Despite the denial, the NDC has maintained its position, insisting that it never submitted the EC9E forms belonging to the 10 candidates published by INEC.
“The Nigeria Democratic Congress did not submit the EC9E forms of the 10 published Anambra candidates to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC,” Theophilus said.
He called on the commission to explain how it obtained the forms and other details of the candidates if they were not submitted by the party.
“The Commission should explain to the general public how it obtained the EC9E forms for these 10 candidates when the party did not submit any of them in the first place,” he said.
According to the NDC spokesperson, the party had submitted candidates who emerged through its appeal process on the INEC portal, but those candidates were rejected by the commission.
He questioned how the names that were eventually published by INEC appeared on the portal, given the party’s assertion that it did not collect or submit the relevant EC9E forms.
Theophilus also alleged that the 10 candidates were inserted into the commission’s portal through its backend and called for an electronic audit of the system.
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“The party submitted the names of the 10 candidates from the appeal process on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) portal, but the Commission rejected those approved candidates,” he said.
He added that an electronic audit trail would help establish how the disputed candidates’ details were uploaded.
“We call on the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct an electronic audit trail to determine how these 10 candidates were smuggled into its portal through the backend,” the statement said.
The disagreement between the NDC and INEC remains unresolved as both sides maintain conflicting positions over how the 10 Anambra candidates came to be listed on the commission’s platform.